Daily Archives: May 5, 2012

Well, here we are. Station triple one. That means that, as the metro system currently stands, (Line 12 still under construction) the third quarter of the project has been completed.

It was quite advanced in the day before I ventured out so I decided to keep the project visit fairly close to home and clickety-clacked off to Lagunilla. Well, actually that’s a misnomer. As I mentioned in the post for Balderas last week the metro here runs on rubber tyres so it is more of a sibilant frictional hiss than a clickety-clack.

Lagunilla, on the fringes of the downtown area is a neighbouring station to the notorious Tepito, by far the most popular station (readership-wise) that I’ve written about in this project.

Emerging from the underground depths at half past five on Friday afternoon I found myself smack bang in the middle of peak hour traffic chaos bordered by the elaborate madness of overflowing markets.

In this visit I found myself wandering down some more run-down, skid row sectors of Tepito than in my previous visit. Vagrants, winos, junkies and various other non compos mentis types punctuated the scene of some streets, lying or lingering, intermingling with the sundry folk, harmless and actually, many in hollow, downtrodden meekness – bless their souls.

Leathery and sooty-faced, matted hair and ragged-clad pickled bhikkhu-like old homeless sages sit on corners for eternity and a day for good measure.

I saw one chap, complexion dappled and in vigorous triple fast-forward, eager and focused, bustle by, inhaling deeply from his glass test-tube like crack pipe clenched between his chafed lips.